'Dead' a duet of the absurd

Adrian Noble directs Old Globe's staging of landmark Stoppard play

Ryman Sneed, John Lavelle, Jay Whittaker and Triney Sandoval (left to right in foreground) and the cast of the Old Globe's Shakespeare Festival production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead."
— Michael Lamont

Ryman Sneed, John Lavelle, Jay Whittaker and Triney Sandoval (left to right in foreground) and the cast of the Old Globe's Shakespeare Festival production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead."
/ Michael Lamont

Think of it as the theatrical equivalent of a photobomb — a case of incidental individuals pushing (or bumbling) their way into the frame.

And then set that thought to rest, because “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” is as much puzzle as it is picture — an absurdist and darkly comic exploration of the more random and even ridiculous aspects of existence.

Tom Stoppard’s 1960s-vintage play, which takes two peripheral characters from “Hamlet” and plops them (much to their befuddlement) in the middle of the action, seems an ideal complement for a pair of Shakespeare plays ­— like some kind of Elizabethan antimatter.

Just don’t tell that to Jay Whittaker, the distinguished Old Globe Shakespeare Festival veteran who returns this year to play Guildenstern. Whittaker has taken on some demanding roles at the fest over the past four seasons, including the leads in “Richard III” and “Amadeus.”

But acting in Stoppard’s work, he says, “is like doing gymnastics while trying to juggle.”

Whittaker is quick to add he’s a fan of the play and of the playwright. But compared with the deep sense of heart in Shakespeare, “Stoppard is pure intellect,” he says.

“Shakespeare is so much easier, because there’s a logic to it, there’s a rhythm to it; the verse just helps so much. But in this, it’s not at all (the case). It’s these intellectual ideas and these funny rhythms, and you have to try to fill it in and do the rest.”

Which might not be quite so hard if Whittaker weren’t also playing the major role of Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which runs in repertory this summer with Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and the Stoppard work. (John Lavelle plays Rosencrantz.)

“I think the hardest thing for me in flipping between the (rehearsal) rooms is when I’m in the head space of Guildenstern,” Whittaker says. “Your mind has to clamp down like a trap when you’re playing Guildenstern, and then open up and take in the vastness of the universe as Oberon.”

Director and festival artistic chief Adrian Noble happens to be a longtime friend of the playwright’s, but he has never staged “Rosencrantz” before. His history with the work, though, goes back way before he met Stoppard; Noble used a speech from it when he auditioned for Britain’s National Youth Theatre as a schoolboy.

“I didn’t get in, by the way,” he adds. (Noble had to console himself by eventually becoming the longtime artistic leader of the illustrious Royal Shakespeare Company.)

Noble declines to take credit for one intriguing happenstance of this production: Lucas Hall, who plays the (relatively small) part of Hamlet, portrayed the same character at the Globe six years ago — in “Hamlet” itself.

“That’s kind of cute, isn’t it?” Noble says.

Maybe the first time “cute” has ever been used in association with this particular play.

DETAILS

“ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD”

When: Runs in nightly rotation with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Merchant of Venice.” Most performances at 8 p.m.; check with theater for exact dates and times. Through Sept. 26.